Crops generally look good across the Upper Midwest, with widespread rains in late May providing a healthy boost.
"I don't want to wreck it (by speaking too favorably), but this is the best-looking crop we've had in five or six years," says Phillip Deal, general manager of the Wheaton Dumont Co-op Elevator, based in Wheaton, Minn., near the Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota border.
Virtually all area crops except for sunflowers were planted...

Corn planting is swinging into high gear across the region, but some area farmers may not get enough seed to plant all the corn -- or at least the type of corn -- that they want.
"It's short, particularly Bt (biotech) corn," Neal Foster, executive director of the South Dakota Crop Improvement Association says of corn seed supplies in his state.
There have been concerns for months that area farmers might come up short of corn seed this...

Sunflower acreage this year in North Dakota, the nation's dominant producer of the crop, is projected to sink to its second-lowest rate since 1976. But the executive director of the National Sunflower Association says there's reason to be optimistic about his crop's future, both in and outside the state.
"There's a lot to like about sunflowers," says John Sandbakken, who leads the Bismarck, N.D.-based NSA.
North Dakota farmers will plant...

As expected, rental rates for farmland continue to rise across North Dakota, with many counties in the state seeing an increase of roughly 5 to 10 percent from a year ago.
The North Dakota field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has released its 2012 County Rents & Values. The widely watched report is used by some farmers and landlords to help determine rental agreements.
USDA...

Sheyenne, N.D., farmer Mark Seastrand expects to plant roughly twice as many barley acres this spring as a year ago.
A lot of other North Dakota farmers will be planting more barley, too, if the U.S. Department of Agriculture is right. USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated on March 30 that farmers in the state will plant 950,000 barley acres this year, up from only 400,000 acres in 2011 and 700,000 acres in 2010.
"No...

As expected, rental rates for farmland continue to rise across North Dakota, with many counties in the state seeing an increase of roughly 5 to 10 percent from a year ago.
The North Dakota field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has released its 2012 County Rents & Values. The widely watched report is used by some farmers and landlords to help determine rental agreements.
USDA...